Tuesday, December 27, 2011

French Country Loaf....Failure!

I started reading Julie and Julia last night. Now, I've only gotten about a half chapter in, but I seem to remember that Julie had several failures during her cook-through of Julia's cookbook. Now, I am not cooking through that book but this was one of the few times I have tried something French...and it was a failure!

Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica
of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour
Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes
from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use
our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and
Canteen’s Great British Food! Now, I am by no means a bread baking expert. However, several years ago I would make bread weekly! I used a starter and the bread was yummy! It did, though, use yeast...which is quite different from this sourdough bread. I process of making the bread was actually fairly simple. The timing of it, though, didn't fit my schedule. I think that may be part of the problem. I had to let the dough sit a lot more than called for.

This resulted in a fairly flat loaf. It does TASTE like a typical french bread and I guess that a country bread is more dense and tough than usual...but I felt like it just didn't turn out like it should have! It did make me want to pull out my sourdough recipe...hmmm! There may be a bread revival soon! Oh...and the cookies in the background? Be watching for the recipe!

French Country Bread
Servings: 1 large loaf plus extra wheat starter for further bakingWheat Starter - Day 1:Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (70 ml) (40 gm/1 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
3 tablespoons (45 ml) water
Total scant ½ cup (115 ml) (3 oz/85 gm) Directions:
1. In a Tupperware or plastic container, mix the flour and water into a paste.
2. Set the lid on top gently, cover with a plastic bag, to prevent messes in case it grows more than expected!
3. Set somewhere warm (around 86 F if possible). I sometimes put mine on
a windowsill near a radiator, but even if it’s not that warm, you’ll
still get a starter going – it might just take longer.
Wheat Starter - Day 2:Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (70 ml) (40 gm/1 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
3 tablespoons (45 ml) water
scant 1/2 cup (115 ml) (3 oz/85 gm) starter from Day 1
Total scant cup (230 ml) (6 oz/170 gm) Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 1, cover, and return to its warm place.Wheat Starter - Day 3:Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (70 ml) (40 gm/1 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
4 teaspoons (20 ml) water
scant 1 cup (230 ml) (6 oz/170 gm) starter from Day 2
Total 1⅓ cup (320 ml) (230 gm/8-1/10 oz) Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 2, cover, and return to its warm place.Wheat Starter - Day 4:Ingredients
3/4 cup plus 1½ tablespoons (205 ml) (120 gm/4 ¼ oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup less 4 teaspoons (100 ml) water
1⅓ cup (320 ml) (230 gm/8 oz) starter from Day 3
Total scant 2⅔ cup (625 ml) (440 gm/15½ oz)Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 3, cover, and
return to its warm place. At this point it should be bubbling and smell
yeasty. If not, repeat this process for a further day or so until it is!French Country BreadStage 1: Refreshing the leavenIngredients
1 cup less 1 tablespoon (225 ml) (160 gm/5 ⅔ oz) wheat Leaven Starter
6 tablespoons less 1 teaspoon (85 ml) (50 gm/1¾ oz) stoneground bread making whole-wheat or graham flour
1 cup plus 2 teaspoons (250 ml) (150 gm/5 ⅓ oz) unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup (120 ml) water
Production Leaven Total 2¾ cups plus 4 teaspoons (680 ml) (480 gm /1 lb 1 oz)Directions:
1. Mix everything into a sloppy dough. It may be fairly stiff at this
stage. Cover and set aside for 4 hours, until bubbling and expanded
slightly.French Country BreadStage 2: Making the final doughIngredients
3/4 cup less 1 teaspoon (175 ml) (100 gm/3 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour, plus more for dusting
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (510 ml) (300gm/10 ½ oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1¼ teaspoons (7½ ml) (7 gm/¼ oz) sea salt or ⅔ teaspoon (3⅓ ml) (3 gm/⅛ oz) table salt
1 ¼ cups (300 ml) water
1 ¾ cups (425 ml) (300 gm/10 ½ oz) production leaven – this should leave some (1 cup) for your next loaf.
Total 6 cups less 2 tablespoons 1415 ml (1007 gm/35 ½ oz/2 lb 3½ oz)Directions:
1. Mix the dough with all the ingredients except the production leaven. It will be a soft dough.
2. Knead on an UNFLOURED surface for about 8-10 minutes, getting the
tips of your fingers wet if you need to. You can use dough scrapers to
stretch and fold the dough at this stage, or air knead if you prefer.
Basically, you want to stretch the dough and fold it over itself
repeatedly until you have a smoother, more elastic dough.
See my demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqS3raEGdwk
3. Smooth your dough into a circle, then scoop your production leaven
into the centre. You want to fold the edges of the dough up to
incorporate the leaven, but this might be a messy process. Knead for a
couple minutes until the leaven is fully incorporated in the dough. See
my demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPO97R4iO4U
4. Spread some water on a clean bit of your work surface and lay the
dough on top. Cover with an upturned bowl, lining the rim of the bowl
with a bit of water. Leave for an hour, so that the gluten can develop
and the yeasts can begin to aerate the dough.
5. Once your dough has rested, you can begin to stretch and fold it.
Using wet hands and a dough scraper, stretch the dough away from you as
far as you can without breaking it and fold it back in on itself. Repeat
this in each direction, to the right, towards you, and to the left.
This will help create a more ‘vertical’ dough, ready for proofing. See
my demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDoJRCMfclE
6. Heavily flour a banneton/proofing basket with whole wheat flour and
rest your dough, seam side up, in the basket. Put the basket in a large
plastic bag, inflate it, and seal it. Set aside somewhere warm for 3-5
hours, or until it has expanded a fair bit. It is ready to bake when the
dough responds to a gently poke by slowly pressing back to shape.
7. Preheat the oven to hot 425°F/220°C/gas mark 7. Line a baking sheet
with parchment, then carefully invert the dough onto the sheet. I like
to put the baking sheet on top of the basket, then gently flip it over
so as to disturb the dough as little as possible. Make 2-3 cuts on top
of the loaf and bake for 40-50 minutes, reducing the temperature to
moderately hot 400°F/200°C/gas mark 6 after 10 minutes.
8. Cool on a cooling rack.

7 comments:

I've been making sourdough bread for about a year now and I still get failures... that dense, slightly-moist and evidently undercooked texture is well known to me... or my bread doesn't rise and doesn't even make it to the baking stage. Perseverance is key! Best of luck on your next loaf! :)

Claire, I don't think this is a failure at all! In order to get those lovely, airy holes, the dough needs to be wet, and a wet dough doesn't give you much of a rise (it spreads) or oven spring. I think it looks fantastic, and of course..taste is what matters most! Wishing you and yours a Happy New Year!!